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The difference between buns of steel and buns of, well, pants are these 10 bum-blasting exercises. We tried 'em — now it's your turn. Get moving!
Hip-Lift Progression
This is an awesome way to relieve tension in your lower back and work your butt at the same time. (A cushy mat will keep your tailbone from crying afterward.)
Do it:
- Lie on your back with your arms at your sides with your knees bent and your feet on the floor.
- Lift your hips toward the ceiling. Hold for 1 count, and then lower back down.
- Repeat the lifts for 60 seconds, squeezing your glutes and hamstrings at the top of the range of motion. Be careful not to overarch your spine.
- To make this exercise more difficult, extend one leg at the top of the lift. Keep your thighs parallel and hold the lifted position for about 5 seconds.
- Keeping your hips up, place your foot back on the floor and then lower your hips.
- Repeat this exercise for 30 seconds; switch sides and do the move for another 30 seconds on the other leg.
Toe Taps
The, um, lower, looser part of my butt takes a beating from this move. Thankfully.
Do it:
- Lie on the floor with your arms on your sides.
- Lift your feet, bending both knees to 90 degrees so your thighs are perpendicular to the floor.
- Now slowly and quietly tap your left toes to the floor, then your right.
- Alternate tapping feet for one minute.
- If you feel any lower back pain, don't bring your toes all the way down.
Single-Leg Front Raises
Balance! A solid thigh stretch! Glute tightening! This is a multi-reward move that requires less coordination than you might think.
Do it:
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a 5-pound dumbbell in each hand.
- Bend your right leg and raise it about 3 inches off the floor.
- Extend both arms in front of you at chest height and your palms facing down.
- Keeping your arms straight, raise your left arm above your head and hold for 3 counts, then return to chest height.
- Continue alternating arm raises until you've done 8 total, 4 reps on each arm.
- Now switch legs, doing 8 more reps standing on your right leg.
Squat with Kick-Back
You are strong. Your quads and butt are toned (okay, getting there). You will not fall as you attempt this powerhouse move.
Do it:
- Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart.
- Sit back to a squat, bringing your fists close to your chin.
- Then bring your left leg straight behind you while extending your arms forward.
- Return to the squat position, then repeat on the other side.
- Continue alternating sides for one minute.
- As you squat, remember to keep your weight back on your heels.
- When extending the leg behind you, keep your hips square — don't twist them toward the side.
Single-Leg Squat with Towel
This targets that messy undies spillover area between the very back of your bum and the lower part of your hips. You don't have that? A double scoop for you then, fitness queen.
Do it:
- Stand with your feet together and place your right foot on top of a folded towel.
- Shifting your weight to your left leg, slide the towel out slowly to your right.
- Then slowly return to the start position.
- Work this side for 30 seconds, keeping your elbows bent and your fists together near your chin.
- When you squat, your left knee should bend between 45 and 90 degrees.
- After 30 seconds, switch legs and do the squats and slides for another 30 seconds.
Dumbbell Squats
A simple way to kick off even a quickie workout, these squats are powerful little moves. Over time, increase reps and dumbbell weight to amp them up.
Do it:
- Start with your feet shoulder-width apart and 8- to 10-pound dumbbells by your thighs.
- Squat down as if you were going to sit in a chair, keeping your weight over your heels.
- Squeeze your glutes as you return to the start position.
- Do 15-20 reps.
- As you continue, keep the weight in your heels, making sure your knees do not pass forward of your toes.
- For a bigger challenge, try it without the weights, jump explosively, and land in the squat position.
I'm all about no-fuss moves that really work, and the plié falls into that category: It's as simple to do as it looks, but infinitely more toning than you'd expect. (In fact, it's one part of the Brazilian Butt Lift workout, below. Get on that.)
Do it:
- Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and your toes pointing out.
- Bring your arms out straight in front of you and lower into a squat.
- Come back up and repeat. Go as low into the squat as you can without letting your knees move past your toes.
- Be sure to tuck your tailbone under and contract your glutes. Keep your torso tall, and don't let your knees creep past your toes.
- Do for 1 minute. (After about 40 seconds, pulse at the bottom of the squat for 20 seconds.)
Explosive Lunges
I would typically shy away from anything that referred to my bum and any explosions, but this move gives me an awesome stretch through my glutes while testing my balance and coordination and patience.
Do it:
- Stand with your feet together and your hands on your hips.
- Then lunge forward with your right leg.
- Jump up, switch legs in midair, and land with your left leg in a forward lunge.
- Continue these explosive lunges, alternating sides, for one minute.
- Keep your fists up in front of your chin and push off the floor with both feet. Your front knee should be bent 90 degrees and align over your ankle.
Sun Salutations
A yoga sequence that works your entire body, sun salutations can especially benefit your butt: As you move from downward-facing dog into lunges and back through chair pose, you'll feel an incredible stretch right through your glutes down through your thighs and hamstrings.
Clam Dig with Rotation
Tight hips, be gone: The outward hip rotation in this move feels incredible. As for toning your butt (and obliques and shoulders)? Talk to us the day after you try this exercise for the first time.
Do it:
- Lie on your right side with your head cradled in your right palm.
- Bend your knees in front of you 45 degrees.
- Hold a 5- to 8-pound dumbbell in your left hand and keep your left elbow on your left side.
- Lift both your left leg and your left arm up to the ceiling at about 90 degrees, keeping your hips stacked without rocking backwards and with your elbow pressed into your side.
- Hold at the top for 2 seconds before returning to start. Repeat for 1 minute, then switch sides.


text:
Sizes: 18"
Weight: heavy
Volume: loud to very loud
Stick Sound: fairly pingy
Intensity: lively
Sustain: medium
Bell Character: integrated
Sound Character: Dark, full, raw, energetic. Wide range, complex mix. Heavy feel, fairly controllable, very explosive crash sound. Extremely loud, nasty china for higher volume playing.
|Artists playing this Cymbal !
Sound Room:
Click the icons below to hear them.
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Click to add a size of this model to the soundroom: 18"
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Home > Products > Cymbals > RUDE > Chinas (& Swishes) > China | Novo China | Wild China | Blast China |

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Luscious Lemon Cake...
From deep in the Gluten-Free Goddess archives, a lemon cake you may have missed... Ever since I saw Ilva's sumptuous Almond and Ricotta Cake I've been jonesing for something with lemon. The odd thing is- her cake doesn't even have lemon (strange the way our mind works and sweeps us away along memory traceries of scent and flavor) but I started craving a cake laced with citrus- not too sweet and not too light. A cake with character and heft.
The day I decided to bake, of course, I had no ricotta, but I did have organic plain yogurt and plenty of blanched almond flour. Inspired by Ilva's recipe, I tweaked her ingredients with those I had on hand and baked up a lovely simple cake that reminds me of a coffee cake I remember liking as a child, a bakery cake called Louisiana Ring made by Freihofer's- yet in truth, that cake featured a hint of orange rather than lemon.
There's that memory glitch again.
Some intuitive leap from taste to taste. An image, a smell can trigger a remembrance as vivid as the day you experienced it, enhanced, I imagine, by hindsight. This ability sharpens as you get older.
Time seems to condense into the senses (invoking forgotten details). You start believing the Buddha's theory about ten dimensions. You start savoring the smallest moments. Your husband hands you a mug of green tea, the steam rising in the late afternoon sun slatted through the bamboo window shade, and a loss from the past heals for a moment.
For this recipe I used blanched almond flour which is slightly softer and more flour-like than straight almond meal processed from raw almonds. I've made cakes with both. I thought the blanched almonds worked well in this cake. The lemon peel imparts a little chewiness.
1 cup almond flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of fine sea salt
1 cup packed organic light brown sugar
5 medium free-range organic eggs
4 oz. light cream cheese (or butter or vegan margarine), softened
1/2 cup organic plain or lemon yogurt- low fat is fine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Lemon zest (fine grated peel) from 1 fresh lemon
1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line the bottom of a 9-inch Springform or cake pan with buttered parchment paper.
In a bowl whisk together the almond flour, sweet rice flour, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt and sugar.
Beat the eggs in separate large mixing bowl until they are light and foamy. Beat in the cream cheese and yogurt until combined.
Add in the lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla; beat to combine.
Add in the flour mixture a bit at a time and beat on medium speed for a minute or two.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake in the center of a pre-heated 350ºF. oven for about 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cake emerges clean.
Cool on a wire rack; and release from the pan. Dust with powdered sugar.
Makes 10 servings.
This cake freezes well. I just ate a piece warmed slightly. It's moist and tender.


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I'm getting an intermittent but fairly loud high-pitched chirping noise from somewhere under the tank when the bike gets hot.
The radiator fan seems to be working OK and the chirping is independant of that; only thing in common is that it only occurs when the bike is running hot (now living here in Albuquerque that is much more often than my previous location where I first noticed it several months ago).
I suspect a bearing somewhere; perhaps the water pump is acting up?
If anyone can shed some light on what my problem might be that would be great. Hopefully it's nothing serious, but...
Regards, Jeff


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Thomas R. Eddlem
New American
November 25, 2012
All of official Washington and their media lapdogs are shaking in fear of the so-called "fiscal cliff" that is looming January 1, counseling that the economy needs to continue its wild trillion-dollar deficit spending habits into the indefinite future.
The possibility that the federal deficit might not be as large next year has the establishment frightened, especially Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. "The realization of all of the automatic tax increases and spending cuts that make up the fiscal cliff, absent offsetting changes, would pose a substantial threat to the recovery — indeed, by the reckoning of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and that of many outside observers, a fiscal shock of that size would send the economy toppling back into recession," Bernanketold the New York Economic Club November 20. He instead urged Congress to avoid fiscal reality, even as he acknowledged that "the federal budget is on an unsustainable path."
Of greater importance is continuing deficit spending and currency inflation, which will somehow magically cure the economy and deficit, according to Bernanke: "Preventing a sudden and severe contraction in fiscal policy early next year will support the transition of the economy back to full employment; a stronger economy will in turn reduce the deficit and contribute to achieving long-term fiscal sustainability." Of course, this is the same prescription Bernanke has advised since becoming Fed chairman in 2006, with less than spectacular results.
The fiscal cliff would cut the federal government's $1.1-trillion budget deficit by $500 billion or more in the next year. It includes $100 billion in cuts from projected spending increases and nearly $500 billion in a variety of tax increases. Because the spending "cuts" are largely cuts from proposed increases, even the leftist Washington Post acknowledged that "the fiscal cliff is the combination of federal spending cuts and tax increases that are scheduled to shrink the federal deficit to $641 billion from $1.1 trillion in the current fiscal year, a decline of $487 billion in one year. Tax increases account for $478 billion, or 98 percent, of the deficit reduction." Other estimates have the tax increases at substantially more than $500 billion. The spending cuts would be split equally from defense and domestic discretionary spending.
Like Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has weighed in favor of a debt limit of infinity, saying on Bloomberg TV'sPolitical Capital to host Al Hunt November 16 that he would favor elimination of a statutory debt limit. "It would have been time a long time ago to eliminate it. The sooner the better."
Part of this fear by Washington Democrats has to do with angering their political base. The Fiscal Times reported that President Obama and Vice President Biden have recruited much of the nation's mayors in the effort to stop spending cuts and continue borrowing:
The bipartisan group of 1,296 mayors from cities with populations above 30,000 met with Vice President Joe Biden, as well as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to voice concerns that the $54 billion of non-defense discretionary spending cuts next year would threaten social programs, while the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and other tax laws would hurt the ratings of municipal bonds.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
According to the group, American cities house 84 percent of the nation's population, and provide 86 percent of its jobs, and account for 90 percent of its GDP. "Cities and metro areas are the economic engines," says Michael Nutter, the mayor of Philadelphia and president of the Conference of Mayors. "We are the economy of the United States of America."
Of course, if the nation's cities are really the place where all the jobs are and they really "are" the economy of America, then why couldn't they just raise local taxes in lieu of federal aid to pay for these supposedly needed programs?
Even traditionally Republican institutions fear the fiscal cliff's tax increases. Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the Wall Street Journal-owned MarketWatch.com fretted November 23 that "increasing taxes by $514 billion next year will make America less competitive and slow the economy. More businesses will go offshore and make fewer investments. People will spend less because more is going to Uncle Sam."
A few dissident voices are noting that as bad as the fiscal cliff is, it's not as bad as the alternative of racking up debt indefinitely. BlackRock Inc.'s Bob Doll told the Wall Street Journal November 19 that going over the fiscal cliff may not be as bad as some economists are predicting. "He sees the fiscal cliff causing a 1.5% hit to U.S. economic growth, not nearly as bad as the 4% drag some economists are predicting."
There's little doubt that tax increases are bad for the economy. But as long as Congress continues to spend wildly, the spending will have to be paid for somehow — through a combination of taxation and borrowing, the latter very much including creating money out of thin air through the Federal Reserve system, leading to the further devaluation of the dollar and higher prices. Free market economists — hardly mentioned in the press — counsel spending cuts, but note that tax increases are less of a drag on the economy than racking up a national debt. "We need a bigger cliff; this one is actually too small," Euro-Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff told Fox Business Channel November 15. "I think that taxes are less damaging to the economy than the deficits that replace them. But the real problem is the spending." Indeed, the record among advanced economies over the past decade has revealed that nations carrying a large national debt grow much more slowly than nations with low debt (even those with higher taxes).
Simply put, taxes need to be lowered through less government.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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text:
$Id: changes_v36.html $
1 [ - GST_N 88 ] - 90 [ - GST_C 208 ] -Since the closing "]" was associated with the previous "[", domains could not overlap.
The new format is:
1 - 88 GST_N 90 - 208 GST_Cwhich allows annotations of the form:
1 - 88 GST_N 75 - 123 GST-middle 90 - 208 GST_C
FASTA version 36.3.6f extends previous versions in several ways:
Additional bug fixes are documented in fasta-36.3.6f/doc/readme.v36
FASTA version 36.3.6 provides two new features:
(fasta-36.3.5 January 2013) The NCBI's transition from BLAST to BLAST+ several years ago broke the ability of ssearch36 to use PSSMs, because psiblast did not produce the binary ASN.1 PSSMs that ssearch36 could parse. With the January 2013 fasta-36.3.5f, release ssearch36 can read binary ASN.1 PSSM files produced by the NCBI datatool utility. See fasta_guide.pdf for more information (look for the -P option).
Likewise, the score histogram is no longer shown by default; use the -H option to show the histogram (or compile with -DSHOW_HIST for previous behavior).
The _t (fasta36_t) versions of the programs are built automatically on Linux/MacOSX machines and named fasta36, etc. (the programs are threaded by default, and only one program version is built).
Documentation has been significantly revised and updated. See doc/fasta_guide.pdf for a description of the programs and options.
By default, the statistical threshold for alternate alignments (HSPs) is the E()-threshold / 10.0. For proteins, the default expect threshold is E()< 10.0, the secondary threshold for showing alternate alignments is thus E() < 1.0. Fror translated comparisons, the E()-thresholds are 5.0/0.5; for DNA:DNA 2.0/0.2.
Both the primary and secondary E()-thresholds are set with the -E "prim sec" command line option. If the secondary value is betwee zero and 1.0, it is taken as the actual threshold. If it is > 1.0, it is taken as a divisor for the primary threshold. If it is negative, alternative alignments are disabled and only the best alignment is shown.
(fasta-36.3.4) Alignment option -m B provides BLAST-like alignments (no context, coordinates at the beginning and end of the alignment line, Query/Sbjct.
Statistical thresholds can dramatically reduce the number of "optimized" scores, from which statistical estimates are calculated. To address this problem, the statistical estimation procedure has been adjusted to correct for the fraction of scores that were optimized. This process can dramatically improve statistical accuracy for some matrices and gap pentalies, e.g. BLOSUM62 -11/-1.
With the new joining thresholds, the -c "E-opt E-join" options have expanded meanings. -c "E-opt E-join" calculates a threshold designed (but not guaranteed) to do band optimization and joining for that fraction of sequences. Thus, -c "0.02 0.1" seeks to do band optimization (E-opt) on 2% of alignments, and joining on 10% of alignments. -c "40 10" sets the gap threshold as in earlier versions.
By default, the program will read up to 2 GB (32-bit systems) or 12 GB (64-bit systems) of the database into memory for multi-query searches. The amount of memory available for databases can be set with the -XM4G option.
In translated sequence comparisons, annotations are only available for the protein sequence.
Add ability to search a subset of a library using a file name and a list of accession/gi numbers. This version introduces a new filetype, 10, which consists of a first line with a target filename, format, and accession number format-type, and optionally the accession number format in the database, followed by a list of accession numbers. For example:
</slib2/blast/swissprot.lseg 0:2 4| 3121763 51701705 7404340 74735515 ...Tells the program that the target database is swissprot.lseg, which is in FASTA (library type 0) format.
The accession format comes after the ":". Currently, there are four accession formats, two that require ordered accessions (:1, :2), and two that hash the accessions (:3, :4) so they do not need to be ordered. The number and character after the accession format (e.g. "4|") indicate the offset of the beginning of the accession and the character that terminates the accession. Thus, in the typical NCBI Fasta definition line:
>gi|1170095|sp|P46419|GSTM1_DERPT Glutathione S-transferase (GST class-mu)The offset is 4 and the termination character is '|'. For databases distributed in FASTA format from the European Bioinformatics Institute, the offset depends on the name of the database, e.g.
>SW:104K_THEAN Q4U9M9 104 kDa microneme/rhoptry antigen precursor (p104).and the delimiter is ' ' (space, the default).
Accession formats 1 and 3 expect strings; accession formats 2 and 4 work with integers (e.g. gi numbers).
lalign35 -q mchu.aa:1-74 mchu.aa:75-148Note, however, that the subset range applied to the library will be applied to every sequence in the library - not just the first - and that the same subset range is applied to each sequence. This probably makes sense only if the library contains a single sequence (this is also true for the query sequence file).
Add Mueller and Vingron (2000) J. Comp. Biol. 7:761-776 VT160 matrix, "-s VT160", and OPTIMA_5 (Kann et al. (2000) Proteins 41:498-503).
lalign35 -m 11 | lav2psreplaces plalign (from FASTA2).
>>gi|121716|sp|P10649|GSTM1_MOUSE Glutathione S-transfer (218 aa) s-w opt: 1497 Z-score: 1857.5 bits: 350.8 E(): 8.3e-97 Smith-Waterman score: 1497; 100.0% identity (100.0% similar) in 218 aa overlap (1-218:1-218) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^where the highlighted text was either: "Smith-Waterman" or "banded Smith-Waterman". In fact, scores were calculated in other ways, including global/local for fasts and fastf. With the addition of ggsearch35, glsearch35, and lalign35, there are many more ways to calculate alignments: "Smith-Waterman" (ssearch and protein fasta), "banded Smith-Waterman" (DNA fasta), "Waterman-Eggert", "trans. Smith-Waterman", "global/local", "trans. global/local", "global/global (N-W)". The last option is a global global alignment, but with the affine gap penalties used in the Smith-Waterman algorithm.


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As the country recovers from a recession, our workplaces are moving forward in new ways with new rules. Changes are afoot from how our offices look to who runs them and what equipment will be used.
As the country recovers from a recession, our workplaces are moving forward in new ways with new rules. Changes are afoot from how our offices look to who runs them and what equipment will be used.
Here are the trends we saw in 2012 and what to expect in 2013:
Employee engagement. There's no polite way to say it — workers have had it. In 2012, we lost our happy-to-have a job mindset, and now we want appreciation. For some of us, it's been a few years since we've had a raise or bonus. An October survey by MSW Research and Dale Carnegie Training found a mere 29 percent of employees are fully engaged. Experts say if our employers want us more engaged, they need to boost our confidence in senior management and look for ways to reward us. "Companies are going to have to decide, 'Do we want to invest in our people again?'" said John Hollon, vice president for editorial at TLNT.com, which follows workplace trends. "They will need to reconnect with workers in ways they haven't had to worry about for about five years now."
Top performers are lifelong learners. It hasn't been easy, but American workers finally realize we need to take control of our careers. Most companies cut way back on training and on education reimbursement at the same time we discovered a need to add to our skills toolbox. Being the top sales associate, or even the best doctor, now means we have to keep up with new technology, trends and approaches, and we have to do it on our own time and our own dime.
Social media at work is a complicated issue. Through social media, companies now have an amazing way to market their handbags or food delivery services. But this new outlet for driving sales is also driving management crazy. As American workers turned to Facebook and Twitter to rant about cheap bosses or snotty customers, we saw employees getting fired and employers getting sued. Meanwhile, labor lawyers are busy drafting social media policies for companies trying to protect themselves by letting workers know what's acceptable. The rise of social media in the workplace isn't likely to slow, and employers will have to prepare themselves for the benefits — and the hazards.
Flexibility is king. Sure, we want to be paid well. But more importantly, we want to know that our employers "get it." We want the day-to-day flexibility in how, when and where we work to better manage our lives. This year, we even saw reports that claim almost half of all workers would give up some of their salary to get more flexibility. We also saw smart employers of all sizes begin to position flexible work as part of their culture. Guillermo Rotman, president of Regus Americas, predicts more businesses will offer their employees flexible work options going forward, particularly as technology untethers us from our desks.
We've got to get up. This was a breakthrough year in understanding that how we work affects our health. Sitting at our desks, staring at a screen all day is making us fat and unhealthy. We saw a new pressure on employers to encourage workplace heath initiatives and pay more attention to physical activity at work. And we've realized we need to work differently, to get up and move around, because mini-breaks of just one minute throughout the day can actually make a difference.
Wellness programs are on the rise. Our employers really do care if we eat that doughnut or go for the apple. They care so much, in fact, that in many instances they're going to pay us to lose weight or participate in a wellness program. By now, employers realize that if we engage in healthy behavior, they benefit from lower health care costs. Expect this trend to get even more attention because the Affordable Care Act will expand the ability of employers to reward workers who achieve health improvement goals.
Overtime. Is stopping on the way in for doughnuts for co-workers considered on-the-clock time? It could be. Companies are running into trouble with workers who claim there's a rampant disregard for overtime pay provisions. In 2012, employees filed more than 7,000 federal lawsuits commonly known as wage-and-hour cases against their employers or former employers, records show. Losing these cases proved costly for some employers, and lawyers say they see these types of lawsuits continuing in 2013 along with a new interest in management training on what counts as a violation.
Boomers retiring. We've been told of its coming; now it is happening. Experts say 2013 is the year that kicks off a wave of baby boomers retiring from careers they held for decades. "Some industries already are very focused on how to replace those exiting employees," said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workplace trends and forecasting for the Society of Human Resource Management. Others will have to work hard and fast to develop the next generation of corporate leaders. At the same time, retirement creates a need for older workers to find ways to stay productive. Look for retirees to seek out opportunities to find work that helps them contribute to the greater good or causes they care about, said Marci Alboher, VP of Encore.org and author of "The Encore Career Handbook: How to Make a Living and a Difference in the Second Half of Life." "They will be looking for opportunities to do something impactful."
Newly designed workplaces. Our workspaces are changing along with our work habits. As collaboration becomes more important, we are finding that workplaces that allow for sharing ideas are the new norm — open floor plans and collaborative work environments, standing work stations and dual monitors. We also see an increasing number of co-working or shared office space and virtual offices, preparing us to say goodbye to office cubicles of the past and look forward to opportunities for better networking. And while we're at it, we will likely be bringing our own device with us to the office of the future. A Cisco study showed a staggering 95 percent of organizations permit employee-owned devices in the workplace. This includes laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Leading organizations recognize the challenges and opportunities that these trends bring. For most, the belt-tightening is over and 2013 will be the year to refocus on top talent and move forward together.


text:
Crime and Drugs: The New Myths
Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest for the American Dream in the Age of Crack
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
Beggars and Thieves: Lives of Urban Street Criminals
The American Street Gang: Its Nature, Prevalence, and Control
In a revealing moment in Pulp Fiction, John Travolta, playing a small-time hood, visits a drug dealer to score some heroin. As the dealer weighs out the merchandise, he offers a terse commentary on changing drug fashions. "Coke's fucking dead," he announces. "Heroin is coming back in a big way." Later, a moll played by Uma Thurman discovers a bag of white powder in Travolta's coat and, mistaking it for cocaine, greedily snorts it. The stuff is so potent that she lapses into a coma, and Travolta must rush her to the dealer's, where she's revived by a shot of adrenaline plunged directly into her heart. That's what you get for being behind the curve on drug trends.
By now, everyone has heard about the comeback of heroin. The most recent round of stories appeared last August, after the overdose death of a thirty-seven-year-old stockbroker, the mother of two young children, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. "The Middle Class Rediscovers Heroin," declared The New York Times. "Although heroin's resurgence first hit the West Coast five years ago, when it was embraced by Hollywood trendsetters and grunge musicians tired of cocaine's manic high," the paper reported, "the drug's popularity has made a bold leap from the ghettos of New York to the plush Upper West Side apartments of the city's young urban professionals."
This was hardly the first time the Times had taken up the subject. In August 1993, for example, it ran a front-page story headlined "With Supply and Purity Up, Heroin Use Expands." Describing a "young model" gliding through a swarm of "glassyeyed addicts" in East Harlem, the paper termed her "one of the new ones, drawn to a high grade of heroin that does not need to be pumped into the body with a hypodermic needle but can be inhaled like cocaine without the slightest damage to a finely turned nose, at least in the beginning." In May 1994, the paper was back with a front-page story from Los Angeles headlined "Heroin Finds a New Market Along Cutting Edge of Style." The drug, it reported, has "caught on, on both coasts, in circles whose habits often set trends—young people piloting the fast lane in the film, rock, and fashion industries."
Joining the Times in reporting on the new craze have been, among others, Newsweek ("Heroin Makes an Ominous Comeback"), Mademoiselle ("Hooked! Why Nice Women Do the Worst Drug"), and The Village Voice, whose story on the subject made it sound as if virtually every writer, musician, and photographer south of 14th Street is doing the drug. In May 1993, the New York Daily News ran a four-part "special report" on "The Comeback of Heroin," while New York Newsday in December 1990 featured a cover on "The Middle Class' New Kick: Heroin."
For five years now the press has been discovering a new trend that may not be so new. Perhaps it's not even a trend, outside the nightclubs of Hollywood and the bars of the East…
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South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences
On-line version ISSN 2222-3436
Print version ISSN 1015-8812
S. Afr. j. econ. manag. sci. vol.17 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2014
Intra project team disagreement, conflict communications, and team performance in cross-functional new product project teams: a decision-making quality perspective
Tsun-Jin ChangI; Shang-Pao YehII
IDepartment of Marketing Management, Shih Chien University
IIDepartment of Tourism, I-Shou University
This paper develops and examines a model of the antecedents and consequences of decision-making comprehensiveness during the new product development process. This model suggests first a concave relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. It also conjectures that conflict communications influence the effectiveness of decision-making comprehensiveness on new product project teams' performance. An empirical test of the proposed framework involves a survey of 220 cross-functional new product project teams. The findings show that an inverse U-shaped relationship exists between a project's intrateam task disagreement and its decision-making comprehensiveness. It also indicates that collaborative communication has a negative effect on innovativeness, whereas contentious communication adversely affects constraint adherence. However, decision-making comprehensiveness partially moderates the relationships between conflict communications and project team performance. Some managerial and research implications of the findings were also discussed in this study.
Key words: conflict communications, project team performance, decision-making
1 Introduction
Cross-functional new product project teams are thought to facilitate the integration of the divergent perspectives and different information resources required in the innovation process. Firms therefore increasingly rely on mechanisms consisting of members from R&D, marketing, manufacturing and sales as an effective way of developing successful new products (Sethi, 2000; Lovelace, Shapiro & Weingart, 2001; Lu & Chang, 2002). But project team functional diversity does not always have positive effects on performance. The overall effect of diversity on team performance might be negative, especially in times of crisis or rapid change, because the advantages provided by multiple perspectives are often offset by problems in- generating consensus (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). Dougherty (1992) found that functional diversity resulted in cross-functional new product project team members with widely varying perspectives on strategies for achieving product innovation. When a project team was unable to recognize and reconcile these different perspectives, the development of successful innovative products is not feasible.
The above discussion suggests that intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness are concepts at the very core of using cross-functional new product project teams. Intrateam task disagreement describes the extent to which the differences among team members' perceptions and positions of the project's strategies, goal priorities and overall objectives (Song, Xie & Dyer 2000). Decisionmaking comprehensiveness describes the extent to which the team is exhaustive as it considers multiple approaches, courses of action and decision criteria in its strategic decisionmaking (Slotegraaf & Atuahene-Gima, 2011; Mitchell, Nicholas & Boyle, 2009).
Empirical research indicates that disharmony among functions in cross-functional new product project teams is the rule rather than the exception (Griffin & Hauser, 1996). Normally, team integration is difficult to achieve in cross-functional settings, because people from different functional areas hold biases towards and stereotypes of one another. These biases and stereotypes arise largely from deeplyrooted functional identities that people hold (Sethi, Smith & Park, 2001). At the same time, in an increasingly dynamic environment, firms and cross-functional project teams are being forced to become more consensual to effectively find integrative and innovative solutions. Brown and Eisenhardt (1995) suggested that the NPD process as a disciplined, problem-solving process involving many decision-making activities was geared towards finding solutions to critical customer problems.
This dilemma raises the research questions that are at the heart of this study: What is the relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness? How does a project team's decision-making comprehensiveness affect its performance? Do different conflict communications have different moderating effects on their relationship to project team performance? In this study, a theoretical model aiming to discuss the relationship among intrateam task disagreement, decision-making comprehensiveness and project team performance was proposed.
Overall, a major objective of this study was to develop and test a theoretical model that addresses the link between intrateam task disagreement and project team performance, including the mediating role of decision-making comprehensiveness and the moderating effect of conflict communications. We then examined the proposed framework using data from a survey of 220 cross-functional new product project teams.
Our empirical evidence indicates a concave relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. We found a negative effect of collaborative communi- cation on innovativeness and a negative effect of contentious communication on constraint adherence. The results also show two significant interaction effects. Collaborative communication improves the effect of decision-making comprehensiveness on innovativeness on the one hand, whereas contentious communication seems to lessen the negative effect of decision-making comprehensiveness on constraint adherence on the other. Undoubtedly, these findings provide some important research and practical implications.
2 Theoretical framework
To explore the three research questions noted previously, we begin developing several research hypotheses which link the following variables: intrateam task disagreement, decision-making comprehensiveness, conflict communications and project team performance. We then present our theoretical framework at the end of this section, which links the specific hypotheses on which the research questions focus.
2.1 Intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness
The literature presents contradictory evidence in terms of the relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. Rather than weighing in on one or another side of the debate, this study would like to propose a reconciliation of these perspectives. In short, it was suggested that the relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness is curvilinear or inverse U-shaped.
Positive effects occur for the following reasons. Higher decision-making comprehensiveness reflects a more exhaustive decision-making approach, involving consideration and analysis of a wide array of information and many courses of action (Fredrickson & Mitchell, 1984). Because NPD activities are non-routine and involve considerable uncertainty and a higher level of task variability (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998), intrateam task disagreement may enhance a team's decision-making comprehensiveness by mirroring the complexity of the competitive environment. As a result, a greater quantity of information and ideas is generated (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995).
Furthermore, disagreement encourages information mobilization and provides a strong incentive for various functions whereby a team can gather and share relevant information in the face of conflicting ideologies. An increased information flow decreases uncertainties in product design, testing and launching. The reduction in these uncertainties improves new product performance (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998). Finally, intrateam task disagreement can encourage a more thorough evaluation of alternatives, which increases the chance of developing high-quality decisionmaking. For example, as Brown and Eisenhardt (1995) suggested, disagreement can prevent tunnel vision and inflexibility in problem-solving process.
Negative effects of intrateam task disagreement can occur for three reasons. First, from the perspective of resource-management, extensive disagreement is not only costly to manage and apply to resolving conflicts around a team, but the team will also be unlikely to obtain the resources needed for new product development. The resultant waste and lack of resources is likely to hamper the quality of the team's decision-making process. Second, intrateam task disagreement hinders a team from achieving consensus. Dougherty (1992) found that, when the team's disagreements became extensive, their members became more committed to their individual positions and consensus became more difficult to achieve. Positional commitments and lack of consensus interfere with the group's ability to find integrative, innovative solutions. Such disagreement reflects the absence of superordinate goals and the presence of local, rather than global interpretive schemes or values (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998). Each functional area may focus on optimizing the product aspects that relate to its own function, while the decision may neglect crucial and vital information and result in lower quality of new product decisions. Third, disagreement may be detrimental to the harmony of cross-functional relationships. Rationally speaking, intrateam task disagreement is considered merely an aspect of task conflict, but a connection unavoidably exists between task and emotion. Bourgeois and Eisenhardt (1988) have therefore suggested that constructive criticisms during debate may be misconstrued as attempts to gain unfair personal or functional advantage or as a challenge to the skills and competence of the- team members whose views are being criticized.
The above discussion suggests an inverse U-shaped relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. According to the concept of diminishing returns, it appears that the increase in the positive effect of decision-making comprehensiveness is less when intrateam task disagreement increases. Yet, beyond a moderate level of intrateam task disagreement, the increase in the negative effect of decision-making comprehensiveness can be more significant. Accordingly, an inverted U curve reflects both the beneficial and the harmful effects of intrateam task disagreement on decision-making comprehensiveness. Thus, this study predicts:
Hypothesis 1: The relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness is inverse U-shaped.
2.2 The effect of decision-making comprehensiveness
As for the perspective of disciplined problem solving, NPD can be described as a disciplined, problem-solving process that involves many decision-making activities geared towards finding solutions to critical customer problems (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). When the team members are encouraged to exhaustively consider multiple approaches, courses of action and decision criteria in their strategic decision-making, managers increase the team members' ownership of the NPD process. This ownership motivates people with different backgrounds and responsibilities to confront conflicts rather than passively avoiding them and to collaborate with others for overall success rather than pursuing their own functional objectives (Dyer & Song 1997; Song, Xie & Dyer 2000).
Moreover, decision-making comprehensiveness enhances strategic coordination and commitment in the NPD process. As Miller (2008) suggested, when the decision-making approach becomes more exhaustive, it reduces the potential for the project team to fall victim to the specific cognitive biases associated with incomplete information. This enables decision-makers to become more realistic and effective in their assessment of the environment. Additionally, a higher level of comprehensiveness reflects a greater investment of time and energy in the decision process, which can elevate commitment to finding and implementing a superior solution (Miller, 2008).
Finally, empirical evidence shows that comprehensiveness in the decision-making process is of direct value for new product advantage (Slotegraaf & Atuahene-Gima, 2011; De Luca & Atuahene-Gima, 2007). That is, higher levels of comprehensiveness can be more beneficial for generating a superior new product innovation. Therefore, we predict that
Hypothesis 2: The level of decision-making comprehensiveness is positively related to a cross-functional new product project team's performance.
2.3 The effects of collaborative and contentious communication
Collaborative communication. Dougherty (1992) observed that intrateam disagreements helped functional representatives recognize their different interpretations and the need to incorporate these differences into the product their team was designing. However, unless collective action or efforts were used to create shared understandings from disparate perspectives, the functional thought world boundaries may dominate.
Firstly, when team members communicate intrateam task disagreement collaboratively, attempts are made to "enlarge the pie" rather than on merely agreeing on how to divide it (Song, Xie & Dyer, 2000). Thus collaborative communication improves the quality of cross-functional information, facilitates cross-functional involvement, and increases cross-functional harmony, building a surrounding that has significant positive effects on a team's longterm innovation performance. Additionally, because collaborative communication combines high assertiveness with high concern for others, participants work cooperatively towards a win-win solution by bringing all the relevant issues into the open, sharing information, and analyzing the situation objectively (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998:196). In such a collaborative context, team members tend to understand the other functions' needs, concerns and perspectives, and successfully communicate their own. Thus collaborative communication is helpful to them in adhering to budget and schedule constraints.
Consistent with the above argument, Dougherty (1992:179) concluded that collaboration (i.e. collaborative mechanisms) is necessary to technology-market linking, which means that collaboration enhances the product's design along with improving the execution of the development process. Therefore, we predict that
Hypothesis 3: The level of collaborative communication is positively related to a cross-functional new product project team's performance.
Contentious communication. Conversely, the message typically associated with contentious, or win-lose communications is generally more pessimistic (for example, "We cannot satisfy everyone's interests", or "You win some, you lose some") (Lovelace, Shapiro & Weingart, 2001:781).
Contentious communication can affect team performance in two ways. First, contentious communication may make consensus so costly in time and resources that team members may try to avoid conflict altogether. That is, they may choose to ignore conflict rather than to confront it. However, avoiding cross-functional disagreements or conflicts can be very harmful to team performance, specifically when it comes to innovation. After all, integrating diverse perspectives of all functions is necessary to mirror the complexity of the competitive environment (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998). Second, contentious communication is more self-interested and punitive, thereby adversely forcing the team to consider multiple approaches, courses of action and decision criteria in its strategic decision-making. Without a thorough evaluation of alternatives and debate about critical issues between technical experts and marketers in the new product selection and design stages, the result is likely to be a product with technological excellence but little consumer appeal (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998:196).
Because contentious communication both decreases the incentive to resolve cross-functional conflicts collectively and cooperatively, and imposes one's way or position by force, this study expects it to be negatively related to both innovativeness and constraint adherence in a cross-functional new product project team.
Therefore, we predict that:
Hypothesis 4: The level of contentious communication is negatively related to a cross-functional new product project team's performance.
2.4 The interaction between decision-making comprehensiveness and collaborative/contentious communication
In addition to the main effects of decisionmaking comprehensiveness and collaborative/ contentious communication on project team performance, this study also conjectures that there is an interaction between these two variables. For three reasons, this study expects that a high level of collaborative communication strengthens the positive effect of decision-making comprehensiveness on team performance, whereas a high level of contentious communication weakens the positive effect of decision-making comprehensiveness.
First, in terms of time- and resources-consuming, reaching a consensus can be more expensive in teams whose members communicate contentiously than in teams which communicate collaboratively. This is because implementing an integrative method can be very costly when high levels of interfunctional conflict make it more difficult to achieve resolution (e.g., a win-lose communication manner) (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967). Integrative strategies are effective only in situations involving a low conflict of interest and negotiable issues (e.g., a win-win communication manner) (Phillips & Cheston, 1979).
Second, in terms of the quality of decision-making, collaboration is more likely to lead to sound decisions on new product selection, design and launch, because it facilitates integration of diverse skills, resources and perspectives, resulting in the most jointly optimal solutions (Xie, Song & Stringfellow, 1998).
Third, to discover novel linkages among ideas and concepts to reach decision-making comprehensiveness, team members require surfacing and challenging assumptions held by- various team members (Mason & Mitroff 1981). Under such conditions, it requires at least that team members feel free to express opinions, perspectives and beliefs that differ from those held by others in the team. In comparison with contentious communications, collaborative communications are more helpful to decision-making comprehensiveness. Indeed, collaborative communications have qualities that have been identified with brainstorming communications (Innami 1994). Therefore, we predict that
Hypothesis 5: There is a positive interaction effect between decision-making comprehensiveness and collaborative communication on a cross-functional new product project team's performance.
Conversely, we predict that:
Hypothesis 6: There is a negative interaction effect between decision-making comprehensiveness and contentious communication on a cross-functional new product project team's performance.
2.5 The conceptual framework
A conceptual model to link the hypothesized relationships among the specific variables on which this study focuses is depicted in Figure 1. This model includes four components. The first discusses the relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. The second describes the effect of decision-making comprehensiveness on project team performance. The third component shows the effects of these two conflicts communication, that is, collaborative and contentious communications, on project team performance. Finally, the moderating effects of two conflict communications on the relationship between decision-making comprehensiveness and project team performance were introduced into our conceptual model. In terms of measuring team performance, drawing upon the viewpoints of Lovelace, Shapiro and Weingart (2001), inno-vativeness and constraint adherence were applied in this study.
3 Methods
3.1 Data collection
Following a similar key informant research procedure (Sethi, 2000), this paper tested the hypotheses using data collected by means of a mail survey of key informants in cross-functional teams involved in recent major new product initiatives. The aim is to identify and contact people who would be highly knowledgeable about team events and practices. In this study, such persons were team/project members, regardless of their assigned functions. To obtain access to new product teams or projects, this study identified high-tech firms in the telecommunications and semiconductor industries around Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Then this study contacted the team leader, with the permission of their firms and their personal agreement, with a letter requesting their participation, listing the criteria for team selection, and assuring them of company anonymity. If a firm and their team leaders agreed to participate in this study, a confirmation letter was sent to a company contact.
The mail survey procedure suggested by Dillman (1978) was primarily followed in this study. Additionally, the data collection method adopted by Slotegraaf and Atuahene-Gima's study (2011) was applied here. From each team (several teams were allowed from a firm), data was collected from two key informants who has been involved in the same recent NPD project. We asked the project leader to select the most recent new product launched within the last three years. The project leader (or the internal team leader, as suggested by Lovelace, Shapiro & Weingart, 2001) provided information on innovativeness and constraint adherence. A second respondent, nominated by the team leader as being knowledgeable about and involved with the project selected, provided data in terms of intrateam task disagreement, decision-making comprehensiveness, team-level debate, and the control variables. Two respondents from each team were also asked to provide information about the relevant variables, individuals' functional background, and demographic characteristics.
To confirm that the sample size we received was adequate, a confidence interval approach was employed to estimate the needed sample size.1 Given that we collected empirical data through a seven-point Likert-type scale questionnaire, and the desired sample size was determined by using a 95 per cent confidence interval and a margin of error of 0.35 (7*5 per cent = 0.35), the maximum possible population variation in this questionnaire is 9.2 Accordingly, we can get a desired sample size of 283.3 Actually, 220 pairs of usable responses were in the final sample.
3.2 Measures
Whenever possible, existing measures of the constructs were used. All measures were pretested on several MBA program students in I-Shou University, Taiwan. Following the pretest, a panel discussion on questionnaire items was held with several managers to ascertain their interpretation of the items in the measures. On the basis of information feedback, the questionnaire was further revised and administered to the full sample. Descriptive statistics and reliability for each measure and correlations among measures are shown in Table 1.
3.2.1 Project team performance
Drawing upon the perspectives of Sethi, Smith, and Park (2001) and of Lovelace, Shapiro, and Weingart (2001), this study conceptualized team performance as two conceptually-related components: innovativeness and constraint adherence. New product innovativeness was opera-tionalized as the extent to which a new product is perceived to be novel in comparison with other competing products. This measure is a slight modification of the creativity scale suggested by Andrews and Smith (1996). The innovativeness scale is a seven-item, seven-point semantic differential scale that taps the novelty dimension of innovativeness. The constraint adherence measure included the team's progress compared with the managers' initial expectations, its cost performance, its adherence to schedules and budgets (Lovelace, Shapiro & Weingart 2001). A new four-item, seven-point Likert-type scale was developed to measure constraint adherence.
3.2.2 Intrateam task disagreement
Intrateam task disagreement was operationalized as the extent to which the decision-making among team members involved disagreement, challenge, and dissent regarding the project's strategies, objectives and goal priorities. The intrateam task disagreement measure is based on a measure proposed by Simons, Pelled and Smith (1999). The intrateam task disagreement scale is a three-item, seven-point Likert-type scale.
3.2.3 Decision-making comprehensiveness
Decision-making comprehensiveness was measured as the degree to which decision-making in the NPD project involved consideration of a large number of alternatives, multiple criteria for evaluating the alternatives and extensive examination of opportunities and possible courses of action. A four-item scale from Miller, Burke and Glick (1998) was adapted to measure decision-making comprehensiveness.
3.2.4 Collaborative/Contentious communication
This measure was based on a measure applied by Lovelace, Shapiro and Weingart (2001), representing the degree of team members' perception of information-sharing, importance of the working relationship, fixed-sum perceptions and personal attacks. A 17-item, seven-point Likert-type perception statement was adapted to measure collaborative (11-item) or contentious (6-item) communication.
3.3 Controls
In order to reasonably assess relationships among variables, this study will include other variables known or expected to affect those relationships proposed in this study as controls. This study hypothesizes five variables that represent team- or organization-specific controls, which were then included in the decision-making comprehensiveness model and project team performance model respectively.
3.3.1 Team-specific controls
The first control, leader effectiveness, was measured on a six-item, seven-point Likert-type scale. The measurement included the items in the innovation group leadership measure used by Van de Ven and Chu (1989). The second control, freedom to express doubts, was measured on a three-item, seven-point Likert-type scale that captured the degree of freedom to express the team members' doubts about the direction being taken, matters occurring in the team, and the feasibility of what was being conducted.
3.3.2 Organization-specific controls
The first control, external environmental forces, was measured on a two-item, seven-point Likert-type scale to measure the external environment. One item was for the degree of competition, and the other for the degree of technological dynamism in the environment. This measure was based on one used by Nohria and Gulati (1996). The second and third controls represent two conceptually-related variables of organizational internal control: formalization and centralization. Of the structural dimensions in an organization, the two most prominent internal controls affecting innovativeness are formalization and centralization (Lu & Chang, 2002; Nohria & Gulati, 1996). Formalization measured the extent to which employee behavior was subject to formal controls, such as job descriptions, rules, procedures and formal written documents. An additive scale of five-item, seven-point indicators was used to measure the degree of formal control over employee behavior based on the suggestions by Lu and Chang (2002). Centralization indicated the degree to which authority to make key decision areas was kept at the top level of the organization. We used an additive scale of five seven-point items as a measure to assess the degree of key decisions that were centralized, based on suggestions by Nohria and Gulati (1996) and Lu and Chang (2002).
4 Analysis and results
4.1 Hypothesis testing
This study performed two regression models: (1) decision-making comprehensiveness regressed on an intrateam task disagreement and the squared term of intrateam task disagreement, and (2) two project team performance variables regressed on three antecedent variables and their interaction terms. Multiple OLS regression models were used to test the hypothesis. First, the respondents' ratings for the relevant items of each construct were summed and divided by the number of items to obtain the multiple-item scales. Then a confirmatory factor analysis using varimax rotation was applied to verify the construct in this study. Finally, to reduce multicollinearity, all the variables were mean-centered (replacing values by deviations from the means), as suggested by Aiken and West (1991). This procedure also had the effect of rendering the interaction terms more interpretable.
4.2 The effect of intrateam task disagreement on decision-making comprehensiveness
Table 2 reports the model explaining decision-making comprehensiveness, including the two phase regression results. In step 1, the model was run with intrateam task disagreement and its squared term. Then two team-specific controls, leader effectiveness and freedom to express doubts, were added to the equation in step 2. Based on Aiken and West's (1991:65-66) suggestion, an inverse U-shaped relationship is supported if the coefficient of the X term is positive and the coefficient of the square term (X2) is negative. By taking steps 1 and 2 together, the regression results presented in Table 2 provide strong support for hypothesis H1, which predicts an inverse U-shaped relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness.
We further depicted the effect of intrateam task disagreement on decision-making comprehensiveness in Figure 2. Based on the empirical results of decision-making comprehensiveness regressed on intrateam task disagreement and its squared term, our data show a significantly negative quadratic coefficient of the intrateam task disagreement effect, indicating that there is a concave relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. As shown in Figure 2, the optimal level of intrateam task disagreement was about 2 for our empirical data (represented by X ). The inverted U-shaped curve demonstrates that when the level of intrateam task disagreementis lower than the optimal level, increasing the level of intrateam task disagreement is positively related to a higher level of decisionmaking comprehensiveness. Yet, beyond a moderate level of intrateam task disagreement, the increase in the level of disagreement diminishes decision-making comprehensiveness.
4.3 Main and moderating effects of antecedents of project team performance
The project team performance model first predicted relationships between three antecedent variables and two performance variables as shown in Table 3. Contradicting hypothesis H2, decision-making comprehensiveness seems to neither enhance innovativeness nor encourage constraint adherence. However, collaborative communication is negatively related to innovativeness, and has no effect on constraint- adherence. H3 is not supported. Contentious communication has a significantly negative effect on constraint adherence as we expected, but it was not related to innovativeness. Thus, H4 is partially supported.
Collaborative communication was expected to strengthen the effect of decision-making comprehensiveness on project team performance (H5). The interaction effect on innovativeness was statistically significant, but was insignificant in constraint adherence. Thus H5 is partially supported. It was expected that contentious communication would mitigate the positive effect of decision-making comprehensiveness on project team performance (H6). Unexpectedly, the interaction between decision-making comprehensiveness and contentious communication on constraint adherence was significant, but the sign of the coefficient was positive. H6 is not supported.
Controls. Regarding team-specific controls, as shown in Table 2, leader effectiveness has a positive effect on decision-making comprehen- siveness. Additionally, the freedom to express doubts is positively related to decision-making comprehensiveness. As for organization-specific controls (see Table 3), while external environmental forces have no effect on innovativeness and constraint adherence, formalization has a significantly positive relationship with constraint adherence, while centralization has a significantly negative relationship with both project team performance variables.
5 Conclusions and discussions
Overall, the empirical evidence supports some hypothesized relationships in the theoretical framework of this study. Specifically, there is a concave relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness. Rather, except that contentious communication adversely affects constraint adherence, the main effect of decision-making comprehensiveness, collaborative communication and contentious communication on project team performance is, incredibly, contrary to this study's expectations. However, decision-making comprehensiveness in collaborative communication teams was significantly and positively related to inno-vativeness, and the interaction between decision-making comprehensiveness and contentious communication has a significantly positive effect on constraint adherence.
In summary, this study reveals a complex scenario in terms of the internal dynamics of cross-functional teams that might contribute to the following aspects of NPD theory. First, the results show that there is a concave relationship between intrateam task disagreement and decision-making comprehensiveness, providing evidence to help resolve the debate between those who say that intrateam disagreement encourages decision-making comprehensiveness and those who suggest that conflicts may, in fact, be detrimental to it. That is, at a moderate level of intrateam task disagreement, the effectiveness of decision-making comprehensiveness will be highest.
Too little intrateam task disagreement is harmful to decision-making comprehensiveness, because it discourages the likelihood of the combination of different points of view and diverse information sources to create a new knowledge base in the decision-making process. Intrateam task disagreement is a measure of the diverse perceptual filters of people feeding information into the decision-making process. The combined perspectives of all the functions are necessary to mirror the complexity of the competitive environment. A low level of intrateam task disagreement provides a weak incentive for generating many alternative courses of action, thoroughly analyzing all strategic options, and using multiple criteria when making decisions. Thus, when the level of intrateam task disagreement is lower than the optimal level, increasing the level of intrateam task disagreement facilitates knowledge creation.
Equally important is the fact that too much intrateam task disagreement is inimical to decision-making comprehensiveness, because managing the functional interfaces within cross-functional project teams can be costly. However, when handling bureaucratic costs caused by intrateam disagreement, it is often used to find teams resorting to simplifying heuristics or algorithmic problem-solving, which actually constrains the teams' ability to discover novel linkages from all new initiatives (Troy, Hirunyawipada & Paswan, 2008). Thus, as the level of disagreement increases beyond the optimal level, increasing the level of intrateam task disagreement decreases decision-making comprehensiveness.
Second, contrary to our expectations, decision-making comprehensiveness does not affect innovativeness and constraint adherence. When it comes to innovativeness, one possible explanation is that, to achieve comprehensiveness, the decision-making process will require more current information that exists in their surroundings (i.e., channel members, customers and competitors). In other words, when teams focus on the operating environment, they monitor what currently exists in their immediate environments. However, creative ideas, by definition, must depart from what exists in the product category (Andrews & Smith, 1996). Therefore, decision-making comprehensiveness does not appear to be the most fruitful source of creative ideas or innovativeness. This finding is also consistent with the conjecture that creative ideas for marketing established products seldom come from studying direct competitors (Park & Smith, 1990). As to constraint adherence, because diverse input is not only necessary to achieving decision-making comprehensiveness but is also foundational to the development of new product knowledge, it is possible that achieving decision-making comprehensiveness can be costly and highly time-consuming when a team is confronting intensive industry competition and technological dynamism. Thus decision-making comprehensiveness adversely affects constraint adherence, which may be particularly true when there is time pressure.
Third, a surprise in the antecedents of project team performance is the role of collaborative communication. Despite its intuitive appeal, collaborative communication has a significantly negative effect on innovativeness. It is not clear why collaborative communications was significantly and negatively related to innovativeness, as one would have expected intuitively. Future research is needed to examine this. One of the possible explanations is that collaborative communication is more about finding solutions to problems, so the goals are geared towards problem-solving rather than the generation of ideas. This explanation is consistent with the conjecture that collaboration is a joint endeavor, in which multiple parties all bring their own, potentially unique perspectives on completing a task and in so doing overcome barriers and bridge differences (Mintzberg, Dougherty, Jorgensen & Westley, 1996). Additionally, as Lovelace, Shapiro, and Weingart (2001:790) suggested if innovation is the primary concern, team members need to express their task disagreements in a collaborative manner. But there is likely to be the dilemma of a connection between task and motion. In other words, task disagreement affects the degree of harmonious cross-functional relationships, thereby decreasing the likelihood of collaborative communication. Moreover, despite the fact that collaborative communication facilitates the integration of diverse skills (i.e., breadth), marketing literature emphasizes that a more substantial grounding in specific major deep business knowledge is also critical to creativity (Andrews & Smith, 1996:184).
Fourth, extending the conclusions by Lovelace, Shapiro, and Weingart (2001), the empirical evidence seems to support that the lack of contentiousness within a project team was more significantly associated with its ability to adhere to budgets and schedules.
Finally, our results indicated that decision-making comprehensiveness diminishes (1) the adverse effect of collaborative communication on innovativeness and (2) the adverse effect of contentious communication on constraint adherence. A possible explanation is that, as the decision-making process is more comprehensive, it reduces the potential of the NPD project team falling victim to specific cognitive biases associated with incomplete information (Miller, 2008). This enables decision-makers to become more realistic and effective in their assessments of the environment (Sniezek, 1992), thereby reducing the necessity of conflict communications and the resulting adverse influences on project team performance.
5.1 Limitations and future research directions
This study has certain limitations. First, the cross-sectional nature of data collection does not facilitate testing of the causal sequences proposed in this study's framework. A longitudinal research design is necessary to validate these claims of causality.
Second, all of our data was self-reported, and does not differ from previous work. However, as for our data, the likelihood of a common method variance may not seriously affect the conclusions drawn from our study because the criterion variables (innovativeness and constraint adherence) and the other variables were obtained from two different kinds of informants, respectively. For this study, the team/ project leader provided information on two criterion variables, i.e., innovativeness and constraint adherence; whereas the second kind of respondents provided data on team atmosphere, organizational internal controls and the control variable.
Third, this study assessed team performance using only two subjective measures. However, this study does not have evidence to show that our perceptual measures of team performance are quality predictors of objective measures of performance. Thus, we recommend further research on whether the criterion variables can be assessed using a comprehensive measure that contains several subjective measures (such as both innovativeness and constraint adherence in this study) and objective financial performance measure (such as ROIC).
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Accepted: October 2013
1 Each sample contains two kinds of key informants.
2 If one half of the respondents scale on 1 and the other on 5, the maximum possible variation can be obtained as follows; imagemaqui
3 A desired sample size for this study was obtained, that is, n = [(1.96)2 • (9)]/(0.35)2 = 283.


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- Tech Trader Daily
Amazon Smartphone 'Fraught with Risk,' Says Baird
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R.W. Baird's William Power today reiterates an Outperform rating on shares of Amazon.com (AMZN), while warning in a note to clients that "Amazon Phone could be fraught with risk," referring to reports earlier this month that the e-commerce giant is developing its own handset for debut sometime later this year.
Writes Power, "Understandably, there are concerns about Apple (AAPL) and Google's (GOOG) platform dominance in mobile devices, but launching a stand-alone phone could add margin pressures and significant competitive headwinds, as detailed in our research note."
Power thinks the complexity of developing and maintaining a smartphone platform of its own would be quite high for Amazon, without the obvious payback the company is already getting from its Kindle devices and Kindle Fire tablet:
Since tablets skew more heavily toward media consumption than smartphones, they are a natural fit for Amazon's commerce and media platform. In contrast, smartphones require specialized native apps (e.g., maps, navigation, e-mail, search, messaging, photos, etc.) that would be costly for Amazon to replicate. In fact, key smartphone apps are some of the largest and most complex applications when measured in terms of software code and the number of server clusters required to run them. Cost of entry and carrier complexity would be significant. Beyond the competitive issues with Apple and Google, the cost of entry to the smartphone market could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, including initial development and distribution, and not factoring in ongoing R&D. We also note that Amazon would likely need carrier distribution (potentially another costly expense) in order to drive unit sales in addition to sales from its own website.
Amazon shares today are down 66 cents, or 0.2%, at $307.23.


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(CNN) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Sunday defended recent legislation that requires adults applying for welfare assistance to undergo drug screenings, saying the law provides "personal accountability."
"It's not right for taxpayer money to be paying for somebody's drug addiction," Scott told CNN's T.J. Holmes on Sunday. "On top of that, this is going to increase personal responsibility, personal accountability. We shouldn't be subsidizing people's addiction."
But the ACLU of Florida, which has already filed suit against Scott over a measure requiring government employees to undergo random drug testing, disagrees, and may sue over the welfare law as well.
"What (Scott) is doing is giving ugly legitimacy to an unfortunate stereotype that has been in this country for a couple of decades -- that all welfare recipients are a bunch of drug abusers," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.
Scott told CNN he wants to ensure that welfare funds go to their primary target -- to disadvantaged children -- and provide people with an incentive not to use drugs. He signed the measure on June 1, calling it "the right thing for taxpayers."
Under the law, which takes effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services will be required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify.
Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children, and do not receive a refund for the test.
Shortly after the bill was signed, five Democrats from the state's congressional delegation issued a joint statement attacking the legislation, one calling it "downright unconstitutional."
"Governor Scott's new drug testing law is not only an affront to families in need and detrimental to our nation's ongoing economic recovery, it is downright unconstitutional," said Rep. Alcee Hastings. "If Governor Scott wants to drug test recipients of TANF benefits, where does he draw the line? Are families receiving Medicaid, state emergency relief, or educational grants and loans next?"
"I work for the ACLU, and it's our job to prevent trampling on the constitutional rights of people," Simon said. The Constitution mandates that searches cannot be conducted without probable cause, he said.
Controversy over the measure was heightened by Scott's past association with a company he co-founded that operates walk-in urgent care clinics in Florida and counts drug screening among the services it provides. In April, Scott, who had transferred his ownership interest in Solantic Corp. to a trust in his wife's name, said the company would not contract for state business, according to local media reports.
Asked about the company Sunday, Scott said he is in the process of selling his family's interest in the company and "it will be sold in a couple of weeks." There is no conflict of interest, he said.
On May 18, the Florida Ethics Commission ruled that two conflict-of-interest complaints against Scott were legally insufficient to warrant investigation, and adopted an opinion that no "prohibited conflict of interest" existed.
On the measure requiring public employees to undergo drug testing, Simon noted that public employees -- workers in city, county, state and federal government -- are protected by the Constitution and should not undergo "intrusive" drug testing without probable cause to believe a person is using drugs.


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Upcoming Events in April & May
- Whale watching is back in full swing, tours from Oak Harbor & Langley with stops in Coupeville:
- The Whidbey Marathon and half-marathon is scheduled for April 13th. (sold-out)
- Madelyn van der Hoogt's weaving schools: April 7-11 (2 rooms available) and April 14-18 (sold-out) http://weaversschool.com/
- The Coupeville Farmer's Market re-opens on Saturdays starting, April 5th.
- Skagit County's Tulip Festival: April 1 to 30 (best selection of rooms is the last 2 weeks of April).
- Comedy Fest in Coupeville, Friday & Saturday,
April 18 & 19, 6 p.m. (rooms available) http://frontstreetgrillcoupeville.com/
- The Holland Happening a Dutch heritage celebration in Oak Harbor is April 25-27. (rooms available)
- The Penn Cove Water Festival will bring Native American arts, crafts and boat races to Coupeville on May 10th. (rooms available)
- Becky's Lemon Lavender Cooking Class: May 10th (rooms available)


text: When deleting Mail Domain's I get the following error: [Tue Apr 30 09:50:36 2013] [warn] [client XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function fetch_assoc() on a non-object in /usr/local/ispconfig/interface/lib/classes/db_mysql.inc.php on line 181, referer: https://xxxxxxxx.net:8080/index.php# [notice] Apache/2.2.17 (Ubuntu) DAV/2 mod_fcgid/2.3.6 PHP/5.3.5-1ubuntu7.11 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.17 OpenSSL/0.9.8o configured -- resuming normal operations I am able to delete records from DNS/Sites with out an issue. It looks to only be an issue with this table (dbispconfig.mail_domain) command line MYSQL works fine. Thanks for looking! Lee


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Revising "Back to the Future's" past? Yes. A sequel? No.
The "Back to the Future" trilogy's director Robert Zemeckis, star Christopher Lloyd and screenwriter Bob Gale agree they don't mind a return visit to the past – but only to celebrate this year's 25th anniversary of the beloved franchise's debut. Otherwise, they say there just aren't enough gigawatts to get them to jumpstart a fourth sequel.
"I think three is a good number to end on," Zemeckis, who's long resisted reviving the franchise, told PopcornBiz. "Three is enough."
"The story is closed," confirmed Gale. "When Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinsons we said 'Come on. Who wants to see a 'Back to the Future' movie if Michael J. Fox isn't it?' I don't. He didn't. Nobody does."
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"There's always talk, you know, but we'll see," said Lloyd, who still revels in the on-screen chemistry he shared with Fox. "It was just there. Like any wonderful relationship, it just existed. We didn't have to work for it or worry about it. It was inherent, you know? And just great casting."
Instead, appropriately, the team is content to celebrate by looking backward, not forward. "We're going to go to New York to do the kick off on the 26th of October for the big Blu-Ray trilogy release," said Zemeckis. That specific date falls exactly 25 years after the day Marty McFly departs 1985 Doc Brown's time-traveling Delorean in the first film, and Gale has plans for more film-inspired occasions.
"In Los Angeles from Nov. 5 to Nov. 12 there are a group of events called weregoingback.com put together by a whole bunch of 'Back to the Future' fans," said the screenwriter, noting those dates correspond to Marty's weeklong stay in 1955. "They're going to go to a bunch of different filming locations and a lot of the people that worked on the movie in various capacities are going to be at some of these different events."
Zemeckis – who went on the helm further tech-breaking classics including "Forrest Gump" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" – said he's thrilled with the enduring popularity of the "BTTF" films. "I feel proud. I mean, who would've ever thought it? It's great!"
"The whole series was so full of kind of an optimism and excitement for life, for adventure, and discovery," said Lloyd. "All things that I admire in people. And the opportunity to bring all of that to life was a wonderful experience. For people who still love to go to the movie, more generations will see it – after 25 years it's an extraordinary, extraordinary experience."
Gale admits he's surprised how long the series has resonated with audiences. "It still delights new generations, all the way to the kids that live around the corner from me who want to come over and see my hoverboard and all my props."
As for their own future, Zemeckis is at work on a 3-D remake of "Yellow Submarine" ("It's a blast," he says. "I'm reliving my time with The Beatles"); Lloyd appeared paying tribute to Doc Brown in "Piranha 3D" and will next appear in "The Witches of Oz" as the famed Wizard; and Gale's wrapping a popular stint writing comic book story arcs for Amazing Spider-Man.


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CENTER A teenager has been detained for allegedly posting a threat on Facebook that he would carry out a massacre at a southern Colorado high school over a detention issue.
The Valley Courier reported the teen was taken into custody last week after the threat appeared about Center High School in Center, about 20 miles north of Alamosa.
Center Consolidated School District Superintendent George Welsh said it appears the teen simply made an irresponsible remark and didnt plan to follow through on it.
Welsh said if an investigation indicates the threat was serious, the teen would be prosecuted.
Welsh notified community members about the incident, and numerous police officers were at the school the next day. No problems were reported, but at least 40 students stayed home from school Wednesday.


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Tigers making first postseason appearance since 1991 NCAA Tournament
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Towson will make its first postseason appearance since 1991 when the Tigers visit USC Upstate on Wednesday in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
The game, set to tip at 7 p.m., can be heard live on the Towson Sports Network (TSN) with Damon Lewis calling the action. Fans can also sign up to watch this game and all the CIT games by going to the tournament's website.
Towson (23-10) hasn't played a postseason game since the 1991 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers will look to continue the CAA's impressive run in the CIT. CAA squads have a 9-4 record all-time in the CIT, with Old Dominion winning the championship in 2009.
Towson is led by two-time CAA Player of the Year Jerrelle Benimon, who leads the nation with 21 double-doubles and leads the Tigers in scoring, rebounding, assists and blocks. All-CAA Third Team selections Marcus Damas and Rafriel Guthrie, along with Mike Burwell make up one of the most important senior classes in Towson history.
USC Upstate (19-14) posted the second-most wins in its school history during the Division I era with 19 wins in 2013-14. The Spartans opened the season with a thrilling 64-63 victory at Virginia Tech to post the schools first-ever win over an ACC school. Upstate went on to knock off South Carolina 74-68 later in the year for its first-ever win over a team from the SEC.
The Spartans finished 11-7 in conference play and reached the semifinals of the A-Sun Tournament for the second straight year, falling to eventual champion Mercer in double overtime.
Upstate seniors Torrey Craig and Ricardo Glenn each earned all-conference accolades at the conclusion of the season. Craig was named to the All-A-Sun first team after leading the league in scoring while ranking fourth in rebounding. Glenn paced the A-Sun in rebounding, offensive rebounds and field goal percentage on his way to a second team selection.
Wednesday's game will be the first ever meeting between Towson and USC Upstate in men's basketball.


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Used 2012 FordMustang
- Stock: CU348363A
- Odometer
- 155,243 miles
- Fuel Economy
- 19.0/29.0 mpg City/Hwy
- Exterior Color
- Other
- Interior Color
- Other
Ford Mustang
Detailed Specifications
- Max seating capacity: 4
- Fuel tank capacity: 16
- Horsepower: 305
Dealer Notes
Recent Arrival! CERTIFIED BY CARFAX- ONE OWNER!, SERVICE RECORDS AVAILABLE!, NEW BRAKES!, REAR VIEW BACK-UP CAMERA!, BLUETOOTH HANDS-FREE CALLING. 2012 Ford Mustang V6 RWD 6-Speed 3.7L V6 Ti-VCT 24VWARRANTY FOREVER PROGRAM included at no additional charge for all vehicles that have less than 80,000 miles. It is one of the most comprehensive powertrain warranty programs in the market. See dealer for details. www.MyWarrantyForever.com.Awards:* 2012 KBB.com 10 Best Road Trip Convertibles * 2012 KBB.com Brand Image Awards
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
- 5.0
Mustang for Life!
By mustangc on Tuesday, May 26, 2015I have a tan/grey 2005 Ford Mustang. This is my second vehicle, first a 2002 Ford Ranger, and it is the best thing I have ever bought. It is super sporty and fun, drives nice and doesn't go all over the road, is comfortable but sits pretty low. No rust even living in the harsh Wisconsin winters. Just an overall great car. Even convinced my father to get a mustang!
- 5.0
Mechanically fine, but if you have the convertible
By Jeeper on Thursday, February 09, 2017I got my 2005 convertible in 2013. It has the common clogged firewall cowl leak easily cleaned out. The parchment colored softop was cracked along the edges and within a year I had a leak on the drivers side that poured directly into the seatbelt opening where it retracts. So when it rains, the interior floods, the carpet is bad, and the seatframe is rusting. (Think wet dog smell), not to mention having to put on a wet seatbelt. It also has a exhaust rattle, which I now understand was a recall item, and involves the exhaust bushing/hanger off the rear of the transmission, It always had a resultant rattle at around 35 mph. The part is and labor is something like 130, I guess they wont pay for that anymore. A new top is fairly silly considering the monthly payment I still have to make for a few more years. Would I keep this thing? Probably as Ive not had a single mechanical issue asides the fuel tank sending unit, btw the fuel tank is a strange bird by design, some gas station pumps frequently cut off as your fueling it...fairly annoying! It does however need to stay in the garage during wet weather. which doesnt work when you have to leave it outside when working, etc.
- 5.0
I love it. Built like a german built car! US made!
By Stathis on Tuesday, December 03, 2013Will keep this car till the day I die. I love everything about it. Its has the 4.6 liter engine reliability and the newer body styling for 2010. Premium package is the way to go with interior style. Ford did a wonderful job.
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